90 Mr. Fothergill on the Natural History of the Toad. 



The uses of the slender billed small birds have been long and 

 deservedly acknowledged in preventing, or at least checking, the 

 noxious increase of many sorts of insects; and it is hoped the 

 unprejudiced reader will now consider toads as able coadjutors 

 in the work, and treat them with that indulgence they are so 

 justly entitled to. Whoever expels them from his premises (the 

 apiary excepted) is driving away useful servants. The writer 

 hopes he has established the character of toads as to their 

 usefulness; and that they are devoid of all poisonous or venom- 

 ous qualities whatever, he is perfectly satisfied from many 

 years' observation and experience, having handled them in all 

 directions, opened their mouths, and given them every oppor- 

 tunity and even provocation to exert their venomous powers, 

 if possessed of any. In short, he believes them to be the most 

 patient and harmless of all reptiles. 



The following observations being connected with the na- 

 tural history of the toad, may perhaps not improperly follow 

 as addenda. 



The substance known by the name of star-jelly or star-shot 

 {Tremella Nostoc), found on marshy ground, is the decomposed 

 bodies of toads or frogs, but more particularly the latter, the 

 writer having frequently found the exuviae of the reptile con- 

 nected with it, and he has also seen the lacerated body of a 

 frog lying on the margin of a lake one day, and the next seen 

 it converted into this substance, the atmosphere at the time 

 being very humid and the weather wet, which appear to be 

 necessary adjuncts to the formation of star-jelly. It may be 

 objected that this substance is sometimes found in places in- 

 accessible to frogs and toads, as the tops of thatched barns, 

 hay-ricks, &c. This is easily accounted for; these reptiles 

 are the food of various birds of prey, and by them carried to 

 those situations to be devoured at their leisure ; and if scared 

 in the act, the lacerated toad or frog is left behind, and if the 

 state of the weather and air is favourable to this mode of de- 

 composition, star-jelly is formed. If the weather is hot and 

 dry, they are converted into a hard leathery substance. Frogs 

 in particular are rarely decomposed by the usual process of 

 animal putrefaction. 



Pennant says, " The gelatinous substance known by the 

 name of star-shot or star-jelly, owes its origin to the winter 

 mew, or coddy moddy, or some of the kind, being nothing 

 but the half-digested remains of earth-worms on which these 

 birds feed, and often discharge from their stomachs." 



It is not contended that this may not in part be true ; but 

 no part of the star-jelly the writer has ever seen could derive 



its 





